INTRODUCTION
Libraries and information centers plays important roles in the work, education, and recreation of millions of people. It is a place entrusted with the provision of means and source through which information need of people could be met, as well as helping them in decision making. Libraries and information centers also help in national building, sustenance and development which come in various ways through the availability of information resources, which the users draw on.
LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES
Information services are largely dependent on information resources. They are those materials that compliment and supplement library and information services. Information resources mean the resources that information seekers can consult or use in the quest to get relieved and at the same time suppress threats that emanates as a result of their information needs. In the Library, the services rendered to the users include technical services, indexing and abstracting, selective dissemination of information (SDI), and e.t.c.
Information resources in the library and information centers are made up of different types, which are;
• BOOKS (printed materials): Fictions, non-fictions, periodicals, e.t.c.
• NON-PRINT MATERIALS: Microforms, CD-ROM, Discs
• ELECTRONIC RESOURCES: Computer, Television, Tape recorder, e.t.c.
It is worth notice that these resources plays specific roles in meeting information needs of the information seeker. Also, each user has his preferred format in which information to be used by him should be packaged.
THE INTERNET
Internet is a vast network of computers that connects many of the world’s business, institutions, and individuals. The internet, which is short for interconnected network of networks, links ten of thousands of smaller computer networks. It enables users of computers and other networked devices throughout the world to send and receive messages, share information in a variety of forms, and even play computer games with people living in other countries. Other devices require special hardware and software to connect to the internet, e.g. modem, network interface card, e.t.c.
The development and rapid growth of the World Wide Web (www) transformed the presentation of information on the internet. This enhances the use of multimedia-photographs, sound, and text. The web consists of millions of websites, collections of information at specific electronic addresses. It in turn contains web pages that hold multimedia or text-only information. Web sites and their pages reside in computers connected to the internet. Uses of the internet include; communication, research, publication, business transaction, push technology, e.t.c.
INTERNET-BASED RESOURCES
Internet-based resources are basically virtual resources which help in information acquisition. They are websites where information could be obtained, to meet several and various information need of information seekers. These resources are based on different level of coverage, namely;
General sites
Professional sites
Subject-based sites
Career sites
Health sites
Sport sites
Miscellaneous sites
Consequently, the major internet based resources are Google, yahoo, virtual internet libraries series, wikipedia; archivex, wikitionary, Amazon online, e.t.c. Feature and nature of internet based resources are the following among others:
• Essential element in evaluating the appropriate system
• Help in research process
• Assist in comparability of different version of system.
• It can be accessed anytime-timeless
• Aid assess current and organizational needs
• It is electrically based
• It is convenient
• It is flexible
• It is instant, quick and accelerated
PRESERVATION OF INTERNET-BASED RESOURCES
The rapid growth in the creation and dissemination of electronic information has emphasized the digital environment’s speed and ease of dissemination often with little regards for its long-term preservation and access. But, electronic information is fragile in ways that traditional paper-based information is not. Metadata creation and format standards have all contributed increasingly as reflected in system software that can be geared to local needs. Hence those systems provide an indication of the trends and issues remaining in the area of digital preservation and permanent access to electronic resources.
Preservation is a subset of conservation. It involves all activities and financial plan that ensure maintaining physical features, as well as protecting the intellectual content that a material contained. It comprises the act of reducing the cause of deterioration, ensuring good handling and storage, as well as reformatting the spoilt ones.
Instit6utional views of preservation requirements and what is meant by preservation can vary. It is important for those involved to ensure that, broadly, they share the same views and agree on what resources will be included for capture, management, storage, or preservation.
Managed Resources: We must manage resources in order to preserve them. An unmanaged resource is difficult, if not impossible, to preserve. Information lifecycle management, if adapted, can help manage web resources. A records management approach may help to enact preservation for business records or legal reasons, even if you don’t intend to keep the resource beyond its expiration.
Protection: Protecting a resource from loss or damage, over the short-term, is an acceptable form of preservation, even if you don’t intend to keep it for longer time.
Permanent Preservation: This means preservation as defined by OAIS model, which is published and internationally accepted as a feasible model for digital preservation. For web resources, we would assume, in this case, that an institutional decision has been made to keep the resources permanently.
RESOURCES TO BE PRESERVED
As a starting point, it is proposed that particular attention be paid to publications and records. Any other web content worth preserving might be considered an artifact with some fundamental interest. Deciding this will help to know what kind of approaches to adopt, when considering web resources for preservation purpose.
PRIORITIES: Prioritization is fundamental to successful preservation-keeping everything is rarely possible. Without policies, practitioners have little to guide their decisions about what must, should, could, and wont be preserved, let alone how. To decide what to preserve, MSCW method can be adopted, which is broken down as:
M-Things your organization must preserve
S-Things you should preserve, if at all possible
C-Things you could preserve, if it does not affect anything else
W-Things you won’t preserve
It is imperative to know that the enormity of website preservation and other web resources preservation is not as daunting as it might appear, and for these reasons;
• Preservation will not apply to all your web resources, because preservation of web resources will recommend a selective approach.
• Preservation won’t necessarily mean preserving every single version of every single resource.
• It may not always mean ‘keeping forever’ as permanent preservation is not the only viable option.
• Your preservation actions don’t have to result in a perfect solution.
CONTENTS OF INTERNET RESOURCES
Internet resources (websites) are likely to contain the following:
• Organizational records
• Contents affecting students, e.g. project, prospectus,
• Online libraries
• Digital collections
• E-learning objects
• Administrative outputs. E.t.c.
In addition, issues associated with website are:
Frequency of change
Access provision
Right of ownership
Streaming and multimedia
Databases and deep websites
Continuity
WEB ARCHIVING REQUIREMENTS
The process of web archiving requires the following:
Knowledge of the organizational structure and its aims
Awareness of the policies and drivers for preservation
Sound understanding of legal record-keeping requirements
Use made of web resources
Potential re-use value of resource
Knowledge of stakeholders and their needs
WEB CAPTURE: WHAT AND HOW?
The elements of web resources that need to be considered are: Content, Appearance, and Behavior. It is possible to imagine three points in the journey of a web page form server to user, where its capture, is likely to be most feasible and fruitful. These include capture within the authoring system or server, capture at the browser, and harvest content with crawlers.
APPROACHES TO WEB PRESERVATION
Successful web preservation is most likely to be achieved by a mix of skills from information management professionals. A variety of approaches are described below, where two main classes of approach are listed:
What to do approach: This include quick win solutions, actions that can be performed to achieve effective results in the short-term, and to rescue or protect resources identified as being most at risk. Actions to be taken include domain harvesting, pilot projects, and use of an EDRMS. They may become expensive to sustain if they do not evolve into strategy.
Strategic approaches: This includes longer-term strategic solutions, which take more time to implement. It involves some degree of change, and affects more people in the organization. These approaches are adapted from information lifecycle management and records management, and also approaches which involve working with external organizations to do the work (or some of it) for you. The pay off may be delayed in some cases, but the more these solutions become embedded in the workflow, the more web archiving and preservation becomes a matter of course, rather than something which requires reactive responses or constant maintenance, both of which can be expensive, resource-hungry and risky methods.
VALUE OF WEB RESOURCES
In cases where there are no clear and compelling reasons for retention, you need to assess the value of web resources in an objective way, thus ensuring that the value of the resource justifies the costs of continued preservation for retention. Some questions to be asked which will help to decide are:
• Is the resource needed by staff to perform specific task?
• Is the resource the only known copy, or the only way to access the content?
• Is the resource part of the institution’s web publication scheme?
• Can the resource be re-used or repurposed?
• Does it have potential heritage or historical value?
• Are there legal reasons for keeping the resource?
• Has the resource been accessed in the last six months?
REFRENCES
1. The World Book Encyclopedia (2006), Volume 10
2. http://portal.acm.org/citation
3. http://www.mottobiz.com
4. http://jiscinvolve.org
